Customer Reviews

SiteSpinner

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been designing and implementing websites for 7 years. Half for work, and half for fun. I am an electrical engineer and have been using Frontpage, GoLive, Dreamweaver, notepad, you name it. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out how to manipulate tables, javascript, alignment, clear GIF's for spacing, etc. HOWEVER, these programs have never been truly what you see is what you get for me. And my webpages always looked differently in Netscape, Safari, Explorer, Opera, Firefly, etc. Really different.
But now with SiteSpinner, everything that took me 7 years to learn and figure out, I learned with SiteSpinner in under a few days. The message boards are great with employees? and people who give real answers that work.
Also, I've even stopped using tables for alignment now because it's so easy to just drag and drop images and text anywhere you want. Then you can control positioning of objects by clicking below.
Bottom line: If you are a beginner wanting to make professional webpages, you gotta get this. For people like me that are pretty experienced, you still gotta get this. I am finishing up a completely overhauled company website now that I budgeted 2 months to do. 4 days so far, and 2 more days to finish.

I can't say enough about SiteSpinner! I used it to create a web site for my "side business". (Not sure if review-writing rules preclude me from saying this, but go to [...] to see SiteSpinner in action) I'm a busy person, running two businesses, so I don't have a whole lot of time to do site design. However, I still wanted it to look great. As a total web design novice going into this, I thought this was out of my reach.

I've tried just about everything out there... all the big names (can I mention them here? I'm sure you know what they are). SiteSpinner was the ONLY application I found that enabled me to get up and running quickly and create a good looking and functional web site that would attract and retain customers. SiteSpinner is incredibly user-friendly and has all the tools I need, in such an affordable package, to carry me forward as I enhance both my business AND my web site.

I haven't found anything that I wanted to do but couldn't with this application. Also, their support forum is phenomenal. Everything is WYSIWYG, drag and drop, and I'm able to upload to my ISP's server from within the program. Comes with templates if you're design impaired ;-) or start from scratch. You can create drop down menus, float over text and have it change color (though it takes practice and a little study to do these kinds of things), fun tricks like that... I could go on... I just love this product.

EDIT, May 2009: I have gotten many inquiries about my current web site as a result of this review. Thank you, I'm flattered! But I thought that I should let everyone know that I am not using SiteSpinner anymore... this decision had nothing to do with the product, it is still as wonderful as ever! Rather, I decided to take HTML and CSS courses myself so that I could understand in-depth what is going on and so I could have more control over the CSS, for example. Thus, my current web site is completely hand-coded. I still believe SiteSpinner is about the best thing out there for people who want a great site fast.

This is the best WYSIWYG web editor I have used. I purchased and used for 2 years Frontpage, but it is not a real wysiwyg editor.
Then I used another one, which was terrible (I will not give you the name, because I hate to even mention that name)
The I purchased Sitespinner, which was perfect.
I wrote a simple site and had it running in less then 2 hours.
You will be able to design very sophisticated web sites in next to no time. It has very good tutorials along with an excellent support forum where you can learn as much as you want.
Why spend more money on other more expensive programs?
This is all you need.

This program is a bargain for the price they charge. After 2 years I got a message that there was a new upgrade, which I could donwload for free.

Highly recommended

I tried SiteSpinner. It is decent web editing software.

I gave it only 2 stars because it has a major flaw - You can NOT import an existing HTML page or file into it. You can only cut and paste text and images individually from an existing web site into the SiteSpinner work-window. (This is also acknowledged in a FAQ on SiteSpinner's site.)

That means means you can NOT start with an existing web page, regardless of how simple it is. You must create a new page almost from scratch.

I chose SiteSpinner because it seemed to receive the best reveiws of all the web editing software. I needed to get some good software because I am a beginner at creating and editing web sites, and because I have an existing web site that was created by another person, and that person no longer has the time or desire to update my web site. Thus, I got SiteSpinner. Sadly, SiteSpinner failed to do the very first thing I wanted it to do: "Edit and update my existing website." Simply put, it can NOT edit or update any web site that was made with any software other than SiteSpinner. About the only thing it can do is to create a brand new web site. So, if you're looking for software to use to update your existing website, SiteSpinner is not the software you should be looking for. Further, you should make sure that whatever software you get will be capable of editing the website that you might already have.

Normally when I see a bunch of rave reviews for a product I am immediately suspicious. But in this case real users are writing reviews and I want to add mine.
I too tried some other products, which I'm sure are great in their own way. (Like Adobe GoLive and CoffeeCup products). I read the w3schools web pages and thought I would crank my own code out. I looked for web designers in my area and couldn't find any reliable ones.
After reading the reviews I thought, what have I got to lose? There was a 15 day full feature trial and by the 5th day I knew I had to license it. I have already made more progress in 3 weeks on my site than I have in the previous 3 years.
Maybe it helps that I do understand a little bit about HTML, Javascript and CSS, but some of the sites created by people who don't even know anything about that are excellent too.
I must add my agreement about the Virtual Mechanics forums. Not only do the developers make frequent appearances with solutions and tips, but the veteran users of the program are always in there with great ideas and plenty of quick help too.
I can't recommend it highly enough.
I did look into WebEngine which appears to be a superset of SiteSpinner, but I didn't need the additional features it provides. But it's also a full featured download in trial mode so you may want to check it out too.

I am quite the novice when it comes to web design, and I knew that I didn't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for expensive web software (i.e. Dreamweaver). So I decided, for fifty bucks, to give Sitespinner a try. You can view the site I created with this software at mywifispy()com.

When you first open Sitespinner, your immediate reaction is "I can't believe I paid fifty bucks for this!" An '02 Ford Focus comes with more extras than this. How wrong I was. As I began to build my website, slowly & surely, I discovered hidden little extras. By right-clicking on many objects, further options & menus revealed themselves. I was able to create buttons, pull-down menus, scroll boxes and other things that I had never done. I know for certain that there are many more options, features & functions on this software, but for now, I am happy with the website I created. As I mentioned above, Sitespinner is not idiot-proof. I educated myself with the tutorials which are accessible on the CD and in the Help tab at the top of the Sitespinner window. I recommend accessing the tutorial from the CD because the tutorial will open in an Internet Explorer window; that way, you can read the tutorial & work on your project simultaneously. Be a little patient with the tutorial as well. The authors of Sitespinner (Virtual Mechanics) make an effort to explain how to do things in "Lay Terms," but they get a little pro-noun happy and can leave you a little puzzled as to what they are referencing. One of the things that was most frustrating was using the FTP feature in "Publish" tab at the top of the Sitespinner window. For some reason, even with proper username, password & directory, I was unable to upload my project. I ended up opening the server directory with Windows Explorer and I just copied & pasted my project on to the server. It was a few extra steps in the process but the task was completed. To surmise, I gave this software 4 out of 5 stars because Sitespinner has a lot of features for the money. If the tutorials were written just a little better (they are good though) and If I could have figured out the FTP feature, Sitespinner would have gotten that fifth star.

This will be a quick review. For the money (I paid $25 for my full copy on an online sale) this is the best. I am quite used to Dreamweaver and have lost my CD and my drive took a crap. Instead of shelling out the hundreds of dollars, I have been in search of a good basic editor with WYSIWYG capabilities for quick sites. I have tried Kompozer and didn't care for it, among other free WYSIWYG editors just suck. I liked coffee cup, but feel SiteSpinner is just a bit better. You can edit your HTML in the same screen, it took me a few seconds to figure that out, so the person who said you can't didn't even take the time to look. Just look under the file drop down and select "Display Cod" or alt+c and the code is displayed next to the WYSIWYG page, on the same page. So for the buck, to me this was the best thing next to Dreamweaver. It is no Dreamweaver, but it gets the job done fairly easy.

This is much easier to use than Front Page & dramatcally easier than MS Web Expression for people who don't know HTML. I also tried CoffeeCup but it didn't seem as capable as SiteSpinner. SS is NOT nearly as easy and bullet-proof for beginners as some of the proprietary editors built in to the big web hosting sites like Network Solutions or Yahoo.

My biggest complaint with SS is the text editor is not WYSIWG and doesn't perform like all microsoft apllications when is comes to CUT & PASTE.

I recently decided to change my website from a PHP based CMS (content management system - I was using one of the free open source ones) to pure HTML.



I was getting tired of the work required whenever the CMS updated it's software and the havoc it would wreak on my site.



I looked long and hard for a FREE WYSIWYG package (essentially "drag and drop" to layout my site). I can fumble my way through HTML, but I am a visual person and really prefer to lay out my site visually and let the code follow.



Anyhow, I found a few really good FREE packages, only to discover that you actually had to have a specific web host in order to publish it. I'm very happy with my host so switching was not an option.



I then looked at the big name software and tried some demos, only to discover they were a bit too much for my needs and not worth the money, that's when I discovered SiteSpinner on Tucows.com.



I actually downloaded the demo last week, tried it and uninstalled it because it wasn't as easily intuitive as the free software I liked, but then in my search for other reasonably priced software, I saw all the glowing reviews on Amazon and other sites for this software.



So, I reinstalled it and was determined to figure it out. In the end, it really wasn't that difficult to figure out. It's not the prettiest package out there, the icons and stuff aren't as cute and modern as some others, but it definately has many more useful features. It's not super packad with all the features you could ever want, but it definately is good enough for a beginner, or even a more advanced person who just likes the drag and drop features. I did have to consult the company's forums to figure a few things out, but it was a good thing because they really seem responsive and willing to help.



Oh, and you also get free software updates for the life of the version you buy. For instance, the current version is V2.7, and until they hit version V3.0 you get free updates to the software.



Anyhow, as far as reasonable priced drag and drop web creation software goes, this one is at the top of my list!